Your Last Breath
by deadbattery
Summary: Post Rent. The story will follow all the characters to their deaths. One chapter for each person, see how they end they're journeys. Wives, children, wasted talent and much much more.
1. Mimi

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Rent characters and I apologize for any damage I may do to the great Johnathan Larson's play. **

**Chapter 1: You're Eyes**

I've spent the last two weeks in the hospital. I'm afraid to leave her side. Any second could be the last and I don't want to miss it. I don't want her to die alone... I'm terrified of dying and watching Mimi, knowing that every breath could be her last has made it so much more real. That will be me in a few years and that scares the shit out of me.

Someone taps my shoulder and I turn to look into the sympathetic eyes of my best friend, Mark. "How's she doing?" he asks.

"How's it look like she's doing?" I snap.

"Sorry," he mumbles. I feel bad for Mark sometimes. First of all his friends are dying and second he's just such a pushover. He could do so much better then Alphabet City but he stays and I know its because of us, Collins, Mimi and I. He doesn't want to leave us behind, he feels bad, like he has to protect us or something. We appreciate it but I know I could take care of myself. And sometimes he just lets it go to far. When I was dating April, I use to borrow money from him and spend it on heroin. He knew that was what I was doing but he couldn't say no. He's a great guy, more of a heart then I'll ever have. He helped me through withdrawal, even after what I put him through and trust me I did a lot of bad shit.

Mark hasn't looked away from Mimi since he came in. I turn back to my girlfriend and my heart stops. Her breathing has become more sporadic in the last five minutes. She looks like death but I still think she's beautiful. As long as I can see her eyes she'll always be gorgeous. She gasps in pain and I move onto the bed.

"Mimi, don't do this again. I know you can pull through it. It was just a little cold. Be strong," I urge her quietly. She grabs my hand and squeezes it weakly.

"Sing me a song," she whispers.

I smile warmly at her and Mark passes me my guitar. I strum a few chords and softly sing our song but my mind is somewhere else. I love Mimi so much and its unfair how little time we've had together. How wrong is it that the two women I've loved have been killed by the same disease. Sure, April didn't technically die of AIDS but if she didn't have it she wouldn't have killed herself. The same monster is killing me and half my friends. God forget about dying with dignity, maybe April was right, better kill yourself then let this thing tear you apart slowly. Mimi looks so sick and pale, it scares me to admit that Collins hasn't been looking much better.

I stop playing my guitar. Mimi's hand is slipping off my leg. I look at her and those gorgeous eyes are staring ahead of her. "No, Mimi, please don't go, I need you," I plead and grab her hand in mine.

She looks at me and smiles. "I'll see you again soon Rog, I love you," and with that I know she's gone.

I can feel tears running down my cheeks and Mark's hand on my shoulder. I knew I wasn't going to have much more with her but I could never have been ready. Mimi made me whole after April. She came looking for a light and all of a sudden I could see the world again. She got me out of the loft, to smile, to love and to feel. Without her I don't know if I can go on.

"Roger come on we should call, Collins," Mark whispers.

"No, I don't care anymore."

"Please you know she wouldn't want you to do this again."

I tear my eyes off Mimi to look at him. He's crying but I don't care. "Wouldn't want me to do what?"

"Lock everyone out. That's not going to bring her back."

"I'm not locking anyone out," I cry angrily.

"Bullshit. You did this last time, too. You pretend like nothings wrong but you let yourself be torn apart. Damn it Roger last time you didn't leave the apartment for six months. I came home every night afraid I would find you dead or just gone. You can't do that again, what if there's no Mimi to save you this time? What are you going to do sulk around the house until this fucking disease eats you alive," Mark yells at me. I'm so shocked I don't answer and he goes on this time in a whisper. "Angel's dead, April's dead, Mimi's dead but you're not Roger. She wouldn't want you to waste what days you have left pretending you can't feel."

Mark reaches out and pulls me into a hug and I can feel my walls breaking. Tears are streaming down my face and I don't bother to fight it off. "She was my angel, I don't want her to die," I whisper.

Mark squeezes me tighter and says, "I know, but she doesn't want you to either."

He's right and I know it. I get up and wipe the tears from my eyes. I start to leave but turn back to Mimi. I lower my hand to her face and close her lifeless eyes. "I want to remember you full of life and joy, your eyes were where I could see your life. I'll see you again soon and you can barge in on me and my guitar one last time."

**A.N: Well I hoped you like it so far. I'm taking a break from my usual Harry Potter fics. I've been hopelessly obssessed with RENT since i was eight so I figured I'd give it a shot. Next chapter: Collins. Please Review!**


	2. Collins

It's been two years since Mimi died and here we are again. The white floors of the hospital are blinding me as I search for something comforting. I find nothing, nothing but sterile needles and tubes hocked up to Collins. I can't believe it, even though I didn't know him too well we had gotten pretty close these past four years. Collins is the rock of our group, like a father figure. He helps us stay together, works with us through our differences.

I look around at my little family and my heart breaks for them. Maureen is crying quietly and I put a comforting arm around her. Mark and Roger are sitting on the other side of the room their heads hanging, Mark, at least, is crying. Roger seems lost in his own thoughts, thoughts I don't even want to know. He won't tell anyone if they ask anyway, Roger always acts like he's unbreakable but we all saw him at Mimi's funeral, he can feel pain just like the rest of us. Maureen tells me he has always been the quiet thinking type, I'm pretty sure I can guess what he's thinking now, "I'm next." Awful thing for so many people to die so young from something that could probably be stopped, if our government would just get off their ass and look for a cure. I'm smirking now, that's something Collins would have said, anarchist that he was. I look back at his pale face now and remember the past week.

Sunday afternoon and everything seemed normal at the loft. Roger played his guitar, Mark was taping him and Collins was laughing at Roger's dilemma. Maureen and I had brought food and we were having a little party, just a reason for us all to get together. The party went well and it wasn't until we were getting ready to leave that we noticed anything was wrong.

Roger was sitting on the couch his arm around Collins' shoulder looking concerned. This was so out of character for both of them. Roger was showing emotion and I could see weakness on Collins' face. I pointed it out to Maureen and she whispered it to Mark who shrugged and said, "Collins hasn't been feeling well lately. Gets tired easily, we don't think its anything to worry about though." Well Mark was partially right. It wasn't anything to worry about until Collins decided to go on a walk that night and collapsed. No one could find him until the morning and he was half dead by then. Roger and Mark had carried him up the stairs looking frightened while I called an ambulance.

So here we were, a time when we needed a leader the most and our leader was gone, forever. Collins had fought for almost a weak and only minutes ago, with his friends all in the room, did his heart stop beating. Maybe it was for the best, obviously the disease was taking over and this sudden death saved him from a very painful one. I mentally yelled at myself for thinking this and then thinking Roger should hope for the same. No one should hope to die so young, none of my friends had every gotten a chance to live, all taken from us before they reached thirty, what was wrong with the world.

I looked up as Mark cleared his throat. His face was tear stained but his voice was strong. "Maybe somebody should say something?"

I looked around at my friends. Maureen had only started to cry harder and Roger hadn't moved at all. Mark rolled his eyes and moved towards Collins' bed. He picked up his hand and said, "You were the best of us Collins. You had your priorities straight. You could have had so much more but you stuck with your beliefs. You knew love and passion was worth more then money. You put your family above everything in life. I'm sure you're happier now, that you're with Angel, Mimi and maybe even April. You're probably all laughing at us for acting like such idiots. I'll miss you." Mark stepped back and looked around at the rest of us. Maureen took a step forward before sitting back down, more tears pouring down her face. I stood up and didn't even know what to say. What do you say to a dead man? Mark did it so well, maybe he's been thinking about this moment a lot. They should teach you about this part of life in school.

I looked down at Collins and smiled, suddenly I knew exactly what to say. "Hey, Collins do you remember that New Years Eve when Angel was still with us? You both dressed up and spent the whole night together, laughing. That night I understood life for the first time. Since I was a little girl my parents taught me life was about accomplishments, it's about what you can brag about when you die. I always thought that meant money and awards. The richer you were the better life you lived or something like that. You and Angel showed me the truth. I couldn't even believe what I saw. Here were two people broke as hell and dying of a terrible disease but that didn't seem to bother either of you. You were living each day to its fullest, savoring every moment you had with each other. It inspired me and opened my eyes to everything I had been missing. I don't know if I can ever thank you enough, I'm not one of those typical lawyers that take any case that pays well. I take the cases that have meaning, something to fight for that is worthwhile. Maureen and I have stuck together through thick and thin and it's all thanks to you. You showed us how stupid we were being, what we had if we would just look for it. You may be gone Collins but I bet you have a lot more to show for then most men walking towards those pearly white gates."

When I stopped talking I was crying, looking up I saw Mark and Maureen staring at me, even Roger was giving me a questioning look. The room fell into awkward silence until Roger said, "Well… I don't think I can follow that up, so I don't know why I should even try."

Everyone laughed and I felt a lot of the tension that had been filling the room disappear. Maureen was grinning a little and said, "You and Mark are both right. I don't think Collins would have wanted us to sit around and cry like a bunch of babies."

Roger stood up and stretched walking towards the bed and sitting down on it. He looked at Collins sadly and said, "Joanne is right. I can only dream of living a life as full as yours. You had no regrets and you left behind a legacy none of us will soon forget. Sure you're not some world-known philosopher but that's not what you really wanted anyway.

And to me you were like my father. A great listener, but an even better problem solver. I guess I shouldn't have expected you to always be here to help me with my problems. Marks pretty hopeless at it," he added with a smirk and everyone laughed. "Whenever something comes up I promise to stop and think about what you would have done and I'll be seeing you soon. Tell everyone I say hello."

Again the room was swallowed but quiet, like we were waiting for an answer that would never come. I reflected on the stupidity of that idea, Collins would never speak to us again, not in this world anyway. No one was there to hold us together anymore, or to help us talk things out, we were on our own and for the first time I doubted if we could last as a group of friends. Collins did so much for us; there was a lot of slack to be picked up without him. But as I thought it through more I knew we would last. We all had parts of Collins in us. Maureen was our creative mind, I was the sensible one, Mark was a good listener and Roger knew when to shake things up a little bit. If we all worked together we could make it through, we could help each other in our own ways. I swore I would do whatever I could to make Collins proud of us.

This was different from when Mimi died. When it was Mimi we all banded together to help Roger through it and ignored our own pain. Roger was our main concern; he had been destroyed by her death. I didn't even notice how much I missed her sassy attitude for months. We all wanted to make sure Roger didn't fall back into a depression. This time we were all banding together to share the pain. We were helping each other through it; we let everyone know they had a shoulder to cry on an open ear to talk to. Collins would have been proud.

**A.N: I am so extremely sorry for the delay but I do have a plausible excuse. This chapter has been written for a very long time and then my dad moved and we didn't have internet until about ten minutes ago. I posted it as soon as I could hope you enjoy it. Next chapter will be posted much quicker. Please Review because I think that's one of the reasons this story is still going, thank a lot. **


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